Rainbows
by Jargonelle
Summary: One shot: 'This place, this wonderful magical place, had somehow been left untouched. It would be their haven for one night only, but she would remember it forever.' Some Martel x Yuan.


Rainbows  
by Jargonelle

Summary: 'This place, this wonderful magical place, had somehow been left untouched. It would be their haven for one night only, but she would remember it forever.' Some Martel x Yuan.

Spoilers: Through most of the game.

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Symphonia and am making no money from this.

…..

Mithos had always loved rainbows.

They were beautiful. They were hope. They were the sunshine after the rain, the bright colours of Luna and Aska and they didn't care whether the ones who admired them were half elves or not.

Their journey had been difficult, and it wasn't over yet, but watching Mithos watching his precious rainbow warmed Martel's heart. It was the moments like this that made their fight seem worth it.

Kratos was at the lakeside, refilling their canteens; he said that the water here was the purest they were likely to come across for a while, so long as they continued to avoid the towns and cities. Martel, who had no knowledge of the area, had thanked him once again for his expertise. Once again, her thanks went unanswered, but she had long learned that Kratos did not know how to accept compliments gracefully.

The air was clean, the wind playful. It felt like an extension of the mana in the area: vibrant, joyous, ruffling her hair and tugging at her skirt.

This place, this wonderful magical place, had somehow been left untouched. It would be their haven for one night only, but she would remember it forever.

Yuan had been injured in their last battle, not too seriously thankfully, but Martel had a feeling he welcomed this respite more than any of them. She wandered over to where he was sat, his back against a tree trunk, catching his eye from a few soft paces away.

He smiled, and she could not help but smile too.

"Sit down," he said, and gallantly offered her half of the cloak he had laid out on the ground.

"You're getting it wet." It was a poor protest.

"It's water resistant."

She knew she shouldn't: they lived in a dangerous time; they had a mission to accomplish and the haphazard alliance between the four of them was tenuous, susceptible to any slight tilt in the balance. Martel had never felt about anyone else they way she felt about Yuan though and the temptation was just too great.

He wrapped an arm around her, supporting her, comforting her, binding them together. She was nervous and excited and slightly dizzy all at once, which was stupid because they weren't even sharing proper contact, his hand resting politely on her sleeve.

"How are you?" she managed finally, a hundred less mundane possibilities having been rejected by the more sensible part of her brain.

"Fine, thanks to you."

"Well… no problem, it was nothing."

Yuan didn't reply. Instead, he was staring in Mithos' direction, frowning a little.

"You don't like rainbows?" she asked, trying not to feel annoyed at the lack of attention she was receiving.

He froze for a moment, then came back to himself and shook his head dismissively. "My brother," Yuan finally began, and for once the title wasn't coloured with bitterness or anger or regret, "told me that rainbows were the stairways to Derris Kharlan, should the elves ever need to find their way back. And that was why they hadn't abandoned this world yet, because they could never get close enough to a rainbow to take the first step."

"That's a good story." Yuan needed to talk, and she needed to let him.

"Well it's not very believable is it? Rainbows are rays of light scattered by water droplets. You can't climb them. Guess he just liked saying it, something one of our parents told him I suppose."

"I can understand that."

Yuan squeezed her arm gently.

They watched the world together for a few minutes, the sun, the sky and the light on the water. Martel was constantly aware of Yuan's body beside hers, the rise and fall of his chest amplified by their proximity. She tentatively rested her head on his shoulder and he stroked her hair in response.

"You should tell Mithos that story," she said, "though he may not care for the elves, he would probably like to hear it."

"Maybe."

As if summoned by the mention of his name, Mithos turned around then. He instinctively searched for Martel first, but when he saw her, and the position she was in, he flounced over to where their supplies were hidden. Angrily he tore through his pack until he found his kendama; he lost some of his precision when he was emotional, Martel noted, but she was pleased he still had his childhood comfort to rely on, especially now everything else had been stripped away.

"I've never had that effect on someone before," Yuan muttered.

"He's just not used to sharing me."

"Well he had better get used to it," Yuan growled, which thrilled Martel, but she did her best to hide it.

"You don't know what it is, do you?" she asked, realising that Yuan's puzzled expression was not really directed at Mithos, but at the kendama itself.

He shook his head.

"Go… go ask him if you can try. You'll be horrible at it and that will make him feel better."

"Oh really?" he asked, but then he laughed. "You are most probably right." He caressed her hair one last time before standing up and approaching Mithos in a very similar way to how he would approach a wounded, vicious creature.

From her vantage point, Martel kept an eye on the pair. She cringed when Mithos 'accidentally' hit Yuan in the face with the ball, but Yuan shrugged it off and anyway, she really didn't want to interfere. Mithos' kendama was just a toy, a game to improve coordination: maybe a little light-hearted competition would help ease their hostility, especially since Mithos was bound to win.

She knelt and gathered up Yuan's cloak, running the slippery material through her hands. It was silly, almost to the point of being impractical, but it offered him protection against water magic, something of which Yuan, with his affinity for lightning spells, had always been wary. It suited him too, complemented the bright colour of his hair, but Martel wasn't going to let him know that.

Kratos was gathering materials for a fire, expertly sorting the dry wood from the damp. Martel watched him for a moment, before going to assist him, ashamed that Kratos had been working whilst the others had relaxed.

"Here, let me," she said and wove a spell around the kindling. It burst into flames, more vigorously than she had anticipated. Fire had always been one of her weakest elements, too akin to destruction and devastation for her mana to embrace it fully.

"You have grown stronger," he commented, in that irritating manner he had, where Martel wasn't sure if he had meant it as a question or as a statement.

"No, it's this place… It's so alive with mana, can't you feel it?"

"Mana was a gift from the elves to this world. Those without elven blood are rarely sensitive to its flow."

"Oh, I'm sorry." There was more truth than he could have ever imagined in that statement, Martel simply could not comprehend living without it.

She filled a pan with water and set it by the fire. The bread they had with them was stale and hard, but if she prepared a soup to dip it in then maybe it wouldn't seem quite so inedible. Supplies were hard to come by, with everyone at war, nothing came cheap, and quite often only Kratos and Mithos would risk approaching the towns. Deserted areas like their current location normally provided fruit of some kind: getting Mithos to eat it was the problem.

"I take it that was your doing," Kratos said, nodding in Yuan and Mithos' direction.

Martel smiled as Yuan once again tried a simple manoeuvre. "I think they would have got there on their own eventually."

Snatching the kendama back, Mithos quickly bounced the ball off both cups and speared it on the point, feigning indifference.

"He is aware of us watching them."

"Oh definitely." Martel had seen that trick many, many times before.

"I think," Kratos said, "that is time for Mithos to have another lesson."

"Before he and Yuan start fighting each other, you mean?"

"Not only that, but if he is to start making pacts with Summon Spirits, he needs to be stronger."

"Kratos… Thank you. I know that you only joined us because of the money I offered you, but you have since had many opportunities to leave us, or to turn us over to either side, and you have not. You have taken my brother as your apprentice and have taught him to defend himself. You tell us when to run, when to fight, when to hide, and you have never yet been wrong and..."

"And?"

She wouldn't blush, she wouldn't. "And if it wasn't for you, I would never have met Yuan."

Kratos smiled. "It has been an honour to help you this far Martel, with everything. Just don't assume that I'm always right," he said and left her.

Mithos carefully wrapped his kendama in a piece of cloth and returned it to his bag, whilst Yuan and Kratos talked. Martel couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could see Yuan's confused expression and Kratos' suddenly serious one. They weren't in danger were they?

The tension dissipated a second later, as Yuan nodded and Kratos clapped him fondly on the back.

"What was that about, if you don't mind me asking?"

Yuan still looked slightly bemused as he sat down beside her. "Of course not. Kratos obviously believes that every girl should have an older brother looking after her and just threatened me with serious bodily harm should I ever hurt you."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Yuan looked at her hopefully, "Well shouldn't we kiss, or something? Otherwise his speech would have been a waste of time and we all know that Kratos isn't one to waste words."

Martel couldn't see any reason to argue with that and so they kissed in that place, that wonderful magical place. It would be their haven for one night only, but she would remember it forever.

…..

THE END


End file.
